Tag Archives: steps

Photographs: Night, Photographs: Southern California, Photographs: Urban/Street

Porch and Door, Night

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Porch and Door, Night
The porch and entrance to an urban residence, Pasadena, California

Porch and Door, Night. Pasadena, California. January 6, 2017. © Copyright 2017 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The porch and entrance to an urban residence, Pasadena, California

This is another photograph I made during the blue hour time just after sunset and before actual darkness, while walking around near downtown Pasadena, California. We started our walk in late afternoon sun, continued as the sunset came on and golden hour arrived, and continued walking on into and past dusk. Later on the walk we turned down a street lined with small, old residential units — homes, apartments, and so on.

Somehow this front door at the top of the cement steps reminded me of an earlier time, perhaps when I was a child. The architecture seems old enough to come from more or less that era. I also like the little unexpected things in the scene, some of which I wasn’t really aware of until later when I looked at the photograph: the hummingbird feeder, the watering can sitting on the porch, that odd slender “thing” to the left of the door, the slightly peeling paint, the faint suggestion of things inside the window at the right.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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Photographs: France, Photographs: Urban/Street

Along the Seine

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Along the Seine
“Along the Seine’ — A man sits at the top of steps along the Seine River, Paris

Most of our time in Paris this past August was spent walking, and there are certainly plenty of great places to walk in this city! But Paris is big enough that sometimes it is useful to get around in other ways: train, bus, subway… and boat. So, after a few days of looking around on foot we decided to catch one of the river tours up and down the Seine through the city. We’ve done this in other cities and discovered that the boats often provide a very different view of things than what we see from the streets.

I quickly figured out that much of my photography from the river would best be done with a longer lens, so I put a telephoto zoom that I had brought along on my little Fujifilm XPro2 camera. Photographic subjects, when seen from a boat, often pass very quickly and there would be little time for lens changes. I photographed almost continuously — architecture, bridges, people along the banks of the river, and more. Here I saw a fellow relaxing against a wall at the top of a stairway leading down to a walkway along the river.

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

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Photographs: Night, Photographs: Northern California, Photographs: Structures and Objects

Steps and Concrete Walls, Night

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Steps and Concrete Walls, Night
“Steps and Concrete Walls, Night” — A stairway in the dark, Mare Island Naval Ship Yard

I made this photograph recently, on a night photography visit to the Mare Island Naval Ship Yard with my friends from the Nocturnes, the San Francisco Bay Area night photography group. We assembled for an “alumni” event, so almost all of us were veterans of night photography at this location. Many of us have photographed here for a decade or more.

Instead of beginning with the usual subjects, I needed out into the night with the goal of avoiding them, at least at first, and instead looking in unlikely places that I had not previously photographed. I spent more time that I would have expected in the area of this staircase. I first happened on it almost by chance. I was photographing this building from some distance away, and as I worked on that photograph I began to notice the potentials of some of the concrete structures near the front of the building. I wandered over there, slowly considered the possibilities, and was first drawn to this stairway. It took be a bit of work to finally arrive at this composition — my first thought was to use a vertical composition.

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G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” (Heyday Books) is available directly from him. Blog | Bluesky | Mastodon | Substack Notes | Flickr | Email

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others.

Photographs: Night, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Bargains of Chinatown

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Bargains of Chinatown
Night photograph of a closed Chinatown shop, San Francisco

Bargains of Chinatown. San Francisco, California. September 5, 2015. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Night photograph of a closed Chinatown shop, San Francisco

In early September I again joined a group of folks who like to photograph San Francisco urban and street subjects after dark. Most of the group met before sunset, did a bit of street photography, joined for dinner at a place along the edge of Chinatown, and then headed out for a couple of hours of photographing in the urban nightscape. Once again we passed through Chinatown — hard to resist when we were already there! — and on down into areas closer to Market Street.

Late in the evening it was time for me to head back to my car, so I said good-bye to the rest of the group and headed back the way I had come, walking alone this time. It was now much later, and this area pretty much shuts down — surprisingly so for a Saturday night in The City. But this meant that the earlier crowds were gone and the scene was a lot quieter and slower. When I passed this corner earlier the shop was open and there were quite a few people around, but now the shutters were closed and the green light washed over the urban landscape of sidewalks and steps leading up toward a dark alley. After years of doing night photography the “old way” — tripod and long exposures — I’m still amazed that I can wander out and shoot stuff like this using a small handheld camera these days.

G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.